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Woman tortured and set on fire for refusing marriage proposal in Pakistan

A schoolteacher in Murree, near the capital Islamabad, has died after she was attacked and burned alive. The woman did not want to marry her school principal's son.

Maria Sadaqat, around 20 years old, died at a hospital in Murree on Wednesday. She had suffered "severe burns," Ayesha Isani, a spokeswoman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences told reporters.

Sadaqat was teaching at a private school in the hilly resort. The principal of the institution wanted her to marry his son, but she refused, police officer Ishtiaq Haider told dpa news agency.

"The principal along with two other men attacked her house. They first tortured her and then set her on fire," Haider said.

Her family members then took her to the hospital, where she died.

Such attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan, where women usually cannot make their own decisions regarding love and marriage. Nearly 1,000 women become victims of honor killing if their families believe they have violated social norms.

A similar incident took place in April, when a teenage girl was drugged, killed and burned for helping her friend run away with a man and marry him.